Gigi, Julie de Carneilha, and Chance Acquaintances: Three Short Novels [Paperback]

Colette (Author), Roger Senhouse (Translator), Patrick Leigh Fermor (Translator), Judith Thurman (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Two volumes of Colette's most beloved works, with a new Introduction by Judith Thurman.

Perhaps Colette's best-known work, Gigi is the story of a young girl being raised in a household more concerned with success and money than with the desires of the heart. But Gigi is uninterested in the dishonest society life she observes all around her and remains exasperatingly Gigi. The tale of Gigi's success in spite of her anxious family is Colette at her liveliest and most entertaining. Written during the same period as Gigi, Julie de Carneilhan, based on Colette's last years with her second husband, focuses on a contest of wills between Julie, an elegant woman of forty, and her ex-husband. Chance Acquaintances, a novella, involves an invalid wife, her philandering husband, and a music-hall dancer whose odd meeting at a French spa affects and indelibly marks each one of their lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The paradoxes of great literature are those of human nature, and Colette is nothing if not human . . . Accessible and elusive; greedy and austere; courageous and timid; subversive and complacent; scorchingly honest and sublimely mendacious; an inspired consoler and an existential pessimist—these are the qualities of the artist and the woman. Its is time to rediscover them."—From the Introduction

"Colette is one of the glories of France."—Michael Straight, The New Republic

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374527857
• ISBN-13: 978-0374527853
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,522 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Collected Stories By A French Master February 27, 2003

By Rachel Garret

Format:Paperback

Gabrielle Colette died in 1954. She is most famous for writing "Gigi" which became a Broadway musical and Oscar winning film. Gabrielle was a talented, gifted writer, with aesthetic skills and a charming perception of humans, particularily the society she grew up in early twentieth century France. A fascinating woman, she wrote mainly short stories, dealing with women coming of age, older women making new decisions, relationships with intensity, and all of her characters have memorable nuances. She may have drawn from personal experience. Colette was clearly a woman with deep understanding of the nature of love and the course of human emotions.

Gigi is the story of a young woman brought up in a decadent, materialistic society. Her aunts have raised her to become a mistress, a courtesan for the wealthy. Gaston falls for Gigi, and attempts to make her his mistress. But Gigi refuses to be a part of the pretentious society in Paris, wanting an honest and open relationship based on love. In the end, she is granted this for remaining true to herself. Julie de Carneilha and Chance Encounters are striking tales of women in love, beautifully written and set in the opulence of Paris. Colette is a cosmopolitan writer, one can almost see her as she writes with a bottle of champagne on her writing desk, a view of the Eiffel tower from her window and a vivid imagination that takes flight.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting to Know a Voluptuaries Voluptuary July 18, 2007

By Julie Jordan Scott

Format:Paperback

I started reading this collection because of the author herself, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, being something of the patron saints of voluptuaries... I felt like I wanted to get to know her better, so I decided the best way would be to read some of her best loved works.

"Gigi", the most popular from this collection, was actually my least favorite in the bunch. It was entertaining and sweet, but much less mature than the other two novellas. The one aspect of it that I loved were the sensory descriptions and I wondered how the original French might be different or the same.

The translation by Richard Senhouse was beautiful, word choices were entrancing.

My favorite selection was "Julie de Carneilhan" as the main character was such an independent spirit and unconventional in the same sense I believe Colette was. It was through this title I really felt like I got to know the author intimately. The writing style favors action with tightly woven descriptive and sensory elements which also tune into Colette's voluptuary leanings.

The introduction to the entire text by Judith Thurman provides a brief mini-biography which provided more details of the author's personal and creative life.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Colette December 28, 2009

By Dora

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book after seeing the musical film Gigi, mostly to see if the stories compared. While the stories are different, they are no less enjoyable because of those differences.